Back from a short trip to Ireland. I could go on about the friendly people, the beautiful country and the superb food at Man Friday in Kinsale, but this is supposed to be a blog about marketing and PR. So, instead let me tell you that advertisements for Riverdance show the full price the customer pays for the ticket including booking fee. I don’t know if this is a legal requirement or simply an ethical promoter but it is absolutely how prices should be displayed. The customer has no interest in what part of the ticket is the cost of the seat and what is the fee taken by the ticket seller. We just want to know how much we will be paying.
UK legislation requires that the original price or ‘face value’ of the ticket be given as well as the fee applying. I know this is an attempt to clamp down on excessive fees by agents but where the primary seller is charging a fee, then frankly the distinction between ‘face value’ on the ticket and extras is meaningless.
A more distressing distinction between ticket price and booking fee occurred recently in our area when a G4 concert was cancelled. The Manchester-based agency Ticketline gave a refund on the ticket price but not the booking fee! What a way to treat a customer. It’s like John Lewis saying we’ll refund you the cost to us of the faulty furniture but not our mark-up. The Office of Fair Trading have said that refusal to give back additional fees in the event of cancellation constitutes unfair terms. Any self-respecting promoter should not deal with Ticketline- and ticket buyers should avoid them whenever possible.
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